The Sarah Jane Adventures Episodes 6 &
7:
Warriors Of Kudlak
Lance Metcalf, a classmate of Maria, Luke and Clyde's, goes missing
following a visit to Combat 3000, a popular new laser tag facility.
Investigating, Sarah Jane discovers that there have actually been a
number of disappearances associated with Combat 3000 locations across
the country. The abductor is the alien General Kudlak, who is using the
game arena to identify young people with the greatest aptitude for
becoming warriors. Unbeknownst to Sarah Jane, however, Luke and Clyde
decide to participate in Combat 3000 -- and they soon become Kudlak's
latest targets.
Some time prior to becoming the producer of The Sarah Jane
Adventures, Matthew Bouch had collaborated with writer and script
editor Phil Gladwin on a project which drew upon the ghost stories of
MR James. Although the programme never came together, it gave Bouch
reason to believe that Gladwin was a writer suitable for The Sarah
Jane Adventures, and an invitation was extended in mid-2006 for him
to develop story ideas. Gladwin eventually settled on a notion which was
inspired by the music video for Cloudbusting, a single from Kate
Bush's 1985 album Hounds Of Love, which was directed by Monty
Python alumnus and filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Based upon an alleged
incident in Maine in 1953, it depicted psychiatrist and experimentalist
Wilhelm Reich and his son Peter trying to perfect a rainmaking device,
prior to the elder Reich's arrest and imprisonment. Gladwin now imagined
a narrative which involved a failed inventor and his son, whose work
accidentally drew the notice of a lonely alien. The alien kidnapped the
inventor, but the son offered to take his father's place.
The Sarah Jane Adventures executive producer Russell T Davies
didn't feel that Gladwin's initial notions were entirely suitable, and
he encouraged the writer to take them in new directions. Over time, the
inventor vanished from the plot, while the son became Lance Metcalf,
whose disappearance set the story in motion. The alien evolved into
Uvlavad Kudlak, whose plan at one point was to collect schoolchildren
for an intergalactic zoo. Gladwin also conceived a sequence in which the
alien was stalked through a shopping mall by the Bannerman Road gang.
Late in 2006, Gladwin shelved this storyline altogether and proposed an
alternative concept, but he was back working on the Kudlak serial by
December. Things finally gelled when the laser tag setting was
introduced. Nonetheless, some echoes of the original Cloudbusting
idea survived, most notably in the scene on the hilltop where Sarah Jane
and Maria induced a shower of entanglement shells.
Charles Martin had directed installments of My Life As A Popat, which also featured Yasmin
Paige
By February 2007, Gladwin's serial was firmly in the schedule for the
first season of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Eventually called
Warriors Of Kudlak, it would be made as part of the year's third
and final production block alongside the finale, The Lost Boy. Before recording began, Phil
Ford -- who had already written Eye Of The
Gorgon and The Lost Boy --
performed an uncredited polish of the scripts. It was planned that
Warriors Of Kudlak would be third in the broadcast order,
preceding Whatever Happened To Sarah
Jane?, which was being made as Block Two. Charles Martin was
assigned to direct Block Three; his credits to date included several
installments of My Life As A Popat, which also featured Maria
Jackson actress Yasmin Paige.
Production on Warriors Of Kudlak began on June 16th with the
scene in Lance's bedroom, which was taped at a house on Wood Street in
Penarth. Martin's team then concentrated on The
Lost Boy for several days. They returned to Gladwin's adventure
on June 26th, with Luke and Clyde chatting at St David's Crescent Park
in Penarth. On the 27th and 28th, recording took place at the Evolution
nightclub in Cardiff's Red Dragon Centre, for Combat 3000 material in
the armoury, transmat area, lobby and side door area, and for Luke and
Clyde's arrival on the Uvodni scoutship. Meanwhile, the Combat 3000
arenas were actually located in the former Nippon Electric Glass UK site
at Trident Park in Cardiff Bay; the first day of work there was June
29th.
Next in the shooting schedule was a day at the programme's regular
studio facilities in Upper Boat, where sequences in Sarah Jane's attic
were taped on July 2nd. It was back to Trident Park on the 3rd and 4th,
for material in the Combat 3000 control room and Grantham's office.
Monster performer Paul Kasey, playing Kudlak, also recorded the
appearances of the Mistress and the Emperor there. July 5th was spent in
Penarth, first at Larkwood Avenue for the exterior of the Metcalf home,
and then at Clinton Road for scenes on Bannerman Road. The 6th saw cast
and crew head into Cardiff, where the entrance to Combat 3000 was found
on Womanby Street, and the arcade was the Black & White Cafe.
The last major location for Warriors Of Kudlak was the Johnsey
Estates in Pontypool's Mamhilad Park Industrial Estate, where various
scenes in the scoutship were taped from July 9th to 12th. Filming on the
13th began at Grangemoor Park in Cardiff for Sarah Jane and Maria on the
hilltop, before continuing with more attic scenes back at Upper Boat.
Production for the year concluded on July 14th, when Martin focussed on
the attic set at Upper Boat. A ten-month break would follow before
The Sarah Jane Adventures went before the cameras again.
- Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #23, 24th December 2009,
“Episode 1.5/1.6: Warriors Of Kudlak” by Andrew Pixley,
Panini Publishing Ltd.
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Original Transmission
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Episode 1 |
Date |
15th Oct 2007 |
Time |
5.31pm |
Duration |
26'48" |
· CBBC |
425k |
· BBC1 |
1.0m |
Appreciation |
85% |
Episode 2 |
Date |
22nd Oct 2007 |
Time |
5.30pm |
Duration |
28'03" |
· CBBC |
397k |
· BBC1 |
1.2m |
Appreciation |
85% |
Cast
Sarah Jane Smith |
Elisabeth Sladen (bio) |
Maria Jackson |
Yasmin Paige (bio) |
Luke |
Tommy Knight (bio) |
Mr Smith |
Alexander Armstrong (bio) |
Clyde |
Daniel Anthony (bio) |
Mark Grantham |
Chook Sibtain |
Carrie Metcalf |
Sarah Haynes |
Lance |
Sonny Muslim |
Brandon Butler |
James Bellamy |
Jen |
Nadiyah Davis |
Cashier |
Chrissie Furness |
Kudlak / Emperor / Mistress |
Paul Kasey |
Voice of Kudlak / Emperor |
Silas Carson |
Voice of Mistress |
Tina Greatex |
Crew
Written by |
Phil Gladwin (bio) |
Directed by |
Charles Martin (bio) |
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Producer |
Matthew Bouch |
Created by |
Russell T Davies (bio) |
1st Assistant Director |
Dan Mumford |
2nd Assistant Director |
Anna Evans |
3rd Assistant Director |
Frazer Fennell-Ball |
Location Manager |
Jonathan Allott |
Production Co-ordinator |
Phillipa Cole |
Continuity |
Nicki Coles |
Script Editor |
Lindsey Alford |
Focus Puller |
Jamie Southcott |
Grip |
Clive Baldwin |
Boom Operator |
Bradley Kendrick |
Gaffer |
Steve Slocombe |
Stunt Co-ordinator |
Abbi Collins |
Chief Supervising Art Director |
Stephen Nicholas |
Art Dept Production Manager |
Jonathan Marquand Allison |
Supervising Art Director |
Matt North |
Standby Art Director |
Alexandra Merchant |
Standby Props |
Nick Murray |
Graphics |
BBC Wales Graphics |
Costume Supervisor |
Arabella Rhodes |
Casting Associate |
Andy Brierley |
Assistant Editor |
Tim Hodges |
Post Production Supervisor |
Nerys Davies |
Post Production Co-ordinator |
Marie Brown |
Colourist |
Jon Everett |
Sound Editor |
Jeremy Childs |
Dubbing Mixer |
Tim Ricketts |
Title Music |
Murray Gold |
Music |
Sam Watts |
Casting Director |
Andy Pryor CDG |
Production Executive |
Julie Scott |
Production Accountant |
Dyfed Thomas |
Sound Recordist |
Brian Milliken |
Costume Designer |
Stewart Meachem |
Make Up Designer |
Emma Bailey |
Visual Effects |
The Mill |
Special Effects |
Any Effects |
Prosthetics |
Millennium FX |
Editor |
Matthew Tabern |
Production Designers |
Tim Dickel |
Edward Thomas |
Director of Photography |
Rory Taylor |
Production Manager |
Debbi Slater |
Executive Producers for BBC Wales |
Phil Collinson |
Russell T Davies (bio) |
Julie Gardner |
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